Clearly as top tier there is going to be almost no radar, and if lucky no planes. Otherwise lower tier planes are easier to deal with, while Yuki AA is almost none. Nevertheless getting into range and maintaining concealment as top tier is fairly easy and comfortable. I have to point out that having radio location skill helps me maintain stealth while generally being in control. It is huge help. Early game it helps me locate enemy DDs and blind torps. I was fortunate that one of them immediately smoked up resulting in easy torp smoke and 1st blood medal. And here is the big impact of F3 torps. When using Harekaze torps they do less damage and enemy DDs may survive single hit. For Yuki as top tier single torp hit on enemy DD is instant deletion! Also faster torps are more difficult to avoid even for enemy DDs. Hence I was able to gain early advantage by either hitting or spotting enemy DDs. I found pushing a flank fairly easy and enjoyable. While BBs will try to turn and evade I simply kept pushing until they were on border map.

I found Yuki reasonably responsive to turn and change direction for IJN standard. It is bit better than Harekaze but you still have to plan ahead and keep an eye on minim-map. It still takes time to complete a turn so 0.5 km concealment buffer is needed to make a turn when torping BBs.

Like other IJN DDs guns are perfectly fine to finish low health targets. I didn't try to attack full health DDs as this is not a gun boat. This is Harekaze role. Also I had to give up IFHE skill. I did find guns would start fires fairly well to keep fire/flooding damage going.

Which brings us to mid/late game torping cruisers and BBs. F3 torps are absolutely amazing in tier 8 games. Even a single salvo can delete most BBs that are usually not full health. I was sitting in smoke and rushed by a Richelieu late game and had no issues deleting him with a single salvo and taking minimal damage. In most DDs I would run away because of its secondaries. However the combination of high speed and high damage F3 torpedoes have means that at times you are God Mode. Another time I had double strike on Mikhail Kutuzov and a BB that were together and slow to turn. In general sluggish cruisers and most BBs will have little chance when faced with F3. They are absolutely lethal. I could keep going but really there is no need. In summary, you are using tier X F3 torps against tier VII and tier VIII ships. Enemy teams will absolutely hate you.

In terms of comparison, I did look at Kagero and decided that torp improvements are worth it. For 2km less range you get:

Kagero Type 93 mod 2: 67 knots, 21K dmg

Yukikaze F3 = 76 knots, 21.4K dmg

+9 knots, +0.4K dmg

You gain tiny bit of damage, but a lot more speed. Also compared to Harekaze:

Harekaze Type 90 mod1 = 62 knots, 17.2K dmg

Compared to Harekaze we gain 14 knots and more than 4K dmg

I play Harekaze with torp reload and still my topredo damage has been abysmal lately (to be fair there are more CVs and Harekaze is almost never top tier so not best comparison). I believe that ability to torp from longer range combined with much lower speed is causing me to have significantly lower hit rate. Here shorter range F3 torps are a blessing in disguise since they force me to get much closer to targets then usual comfort zone of 8+ km. So in terms of torpedo damage Harekaze is way behind. That being said Harekaze does have 100mm guns combined with IFHE captain skill are lethal. So gun damage clearly goes to Harekaze. In a way they can both deal with enemy DDs well just using different weapons, guns or torps.

Next is Asashio. While I don't have I can extrapolate from seeing enemy DDs and few reviews. The combination of longer range and specialized torps means that Asashio is a lot more specialized torp boat. It means that it is much less of a threat until mid to late game. This is a huge downside since DDs and cruisers will be happy to chase it. Guns and detection are comparable but the big difference is that Yuki is a threat to all ships entire game. Asashio is very limited early game and by the end match is decided anyway. So Asashio cannot effectively carry and help team early on except for spotting. So I think Yuki is superior. Note that late game Yuki can comfortable get close enough to torp BBs anyway, so at that point limited range is not an issue.

Another thing I noticed is 160K win was 1 milliom credits, premium account without any income flags. I do remember having a solid spotting damage as well. Not sure if it is match performance alone or it also had a solid credits multiplier. In any case I was surprised since I haven't had a 1 Mil match in my Missouri in a long time even with economic flags.

Next will be part 2, when it is bottom tier, so tier X matches.

LWM Rating: OP Bote (when top tier)

Part 2 - Bottom Tier

Many games when I was bottom tier were zero damage, early demise. The combination of radar and planes, plus many powerful gun boat DDs creates a super hostile environment and very hard to get into 8 km strike range. As many pointed out, you will loose 1v1 against most tier 9/10 DDs and IJN brothers Kitakaze and Haragumo will eat you alive in seconds. I did try to ambush couple of DDs hiding in a cap in smoke and failed. It is especially difficult to play in passive tier X teams. Most DDs struggle with passive play style, but this one is simply helpless. If you team is sitting back you cannot do anything at all.

Tier X battles for Yuki become super strategic and require a lot of patience to wait for the correct opportunity. You certainly want to keep close to some sort of support as you will probably need it. I found the best success when enemy is too aggressive, which doesn't happen often. As long as there is another ship in front keep enemy attention you can sneak around and try to get flanking torps. However going alone is generally doomed to failure.

In short, Yuki as bottom tier is at the mercy of the team. It can go with friendly ships and assist with spotting and some alpha damage. It pretty much becomes a support DD, fleet screen.

Another challenge are double CV matches. When there are a lot of planes around it becomes extremely difficult to find an area where you can remain invisible. Dropping smoke will only attract enemy torps and radar. In this case Harekaze is much more comfortable because its 100mm mains are dual purpose and can actually hurt planes. I run mine without smoke and managed to get my build with enough AA to punish planes and force them to leave me alone.

Summary

LittleWhiteMouse rating:

Skill floor: Difficult

Skill Ceiling: Extreme

If you do not like or don't have knowledge for DD play style and in particular torpedo DD play style, just walk away. Even the most experienced DD players may struggle. It certainly requires a lot of knowledge and experience, and some patience to make it work. It would be easy to focus on negatives as most other reviewers have already done. Instead I here are my thoughts on when/why it could be good and fun.

At least in NA region tier X is dominated by extremely passive and boring style of sitting back and waiting. It is fairly easy to play a high tier DD safely sitting back with your capital ships and waiting. This is why I hate high tier matches. They are incredibly boring, incredibly hard to make your allies do something and boils down to 20 min of boring sailing around and hoping in the end that your team is few points higher. Instead I would prefer to take some chances and try to do something early on because losing in 5 min is lot less annoying and frustrating than doing nothing for 20 min to lose anyway. Yuki is DD that offer high risk and high reward scenario if you are looking for a challenge. In effect it lets you try something more difficult and less safe. In the end yes you may get deleted but at least you tried.

Yuki is like high tier version of Kamikaze DDs that offers the same kind of thrill of getting close and personal while being rewarded with high damage alpha strikes. In fact I still have more fun at tier V in my Kamikaze then tier VIII in Harekaze. Yuli in effect offers Kamikaze play style in higher tiers if you up to the challenge.

Which brings us to the end. This is DD for DD players who are looking for a challenge, for higher ninja type risks. In terms of the current competition, it is team Glory board ;)

The big downside I have read is the. 2.5 km detection range of the torps. Have they changed that? The short range seems workable (10 km would be better) especially in PvE where the bots are usually coming at you.

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I don't think you have to say its easier when you are top tier, cuz that is the case for all ships in general. I would say all DD are better when they are top tier lol.

The issue really is how often are you really top tier in say 20 games.

Also although max damage is high on it, it is also subject to rng, I would not say its always gonna kill a dd in a single hit. RNG is +/- 25 percent range.

I think the straight description of what this new IJN YukiKazi is. Its like an up tiered Kamikazi, except for its tier, it has short range torps of 8km but torps are fast.

What does this mean for you if you play it.

Well in the world of carriers, radar and hydro and other destroyers in game you have to be very careful and for you to be effective you have to play at dangerous ranges where if ya get spotted you likely get deleted or take heavy damage.

As a typical destroyer player 8km torps means unless ya using the torpedos for denial of area or hoping to get lucky, at 8km range torps, you are going to get as close as 5km to 6.5km to get your torpedos off to have a good chance to hit em. You are not gonna be launching your torpedos at 8km unless they coming towards you.

This close range of attack means its gonna be very dangerous.

Against other DD, the problem is it has 2km less range than some DD per tier or even lesser tier. So they other dd can hit you from farther away. As well the reload being what it is, although the guns are good, you cant out dpm other gun boats.

So you are in this no mans land kind of, you are not a gun boat, but you are a torpedo boat but you have short range.

So its like in a way a Japanese Russian destroyer hybrid, reload doesn't make it able to gunboat and out dpm other gunboats, and range on torpdeos is short. Or you can just call it an uptiered Kamikazi with short range torpedos for tier.

Would you choose to play this over other IJN premium DD? Probably not unless ya bored. Is it noob friendly? With matchmaking what it is, and with the amount of planes, radar, hydro, and other dd you gonna face most of the time, I would say no its not noob friendly.

The short range seems workable (10 km would be better) especially in PvE where the bots are usually coming at you.

Not to mention the fact that you need to get in close anyway, because even with (hypothetical) perfectly stealthy torps that had a 100 metre detection distance, they would still have that spooky-cheaty avoidance ability.

Not to mention the fact that you need to get in close anyway, because even with (hypothetical) perfectly stealthy torps that had a 100 metre detection distance, they would still have that spooky-cheaty avoidance ability.

Yep. Not that I am even close to an expert, at the start sprint ahead fire at the lead bot spam torps behind you and run to your team, or lead them past the team and make a shooting gallery.

Maybe WG needs to make a special PvE DD modeled after the WW 1 torp boats that had the launchers in the stern.

The big downside I have read is the. 2.5 km detection range of the torps. Have they changed that? The short range seems workable (10 km would be better) especially in PvE where the bots are usually coming at you.

You are confused. The unreleased Yuudachi, still in testing atm, has 15km torps with a 2.5km detection range.

Yukikaze uses the F3 torps found on the T9+ IJN DDs and Zao.

For myself, I've had 2 Yukikaze matches do far and won both. Those I put mainly to the red team being bad, and the radar cruisers and CVs leaving me alone. I like to think that my experience playing Kagero style ships helped, but I'd probably be deluding myself.

OP, I think you've missed some key points.

The F3 torps are strong up close, and if enemies are pushing towards you, great. But the short range is a major problem when they are running away. In the couple of times I've played Yukikaze, there have definitely been times where I just didn't have the range I wanted. Kagero and Harekaze also have the option to mount TRB. True, they have to give up smoke, but a good Kagero/Harekaze player can work with that. Yukikaze has no options to launch a wall of torps. Harekaze is probably not a good comparison, since although it's a Kagero class, it serves a different purpose. Though Harekaze has worse torps than Kagero and Yukikaze, she has far better guns.

You are confused. The unreleased Yuudachi, still in testing atm, has 15km torps with a 2.5km detection range.

Yukikaze uses the F3 torps found on the T9+ IJN DDs and Zao.

For myself, I've had 2 Yukikaze matches do far and won both. Those I put mainly to the red team being bad, and the radar cruisers and CVs leaving me alone. I like to think that my experience playing Kagero style ships helped, but I'd probably be deluding myself.

OP, I think you've missed some key points.

The F3 torps are strong up close, and if enemies are pushing towards you, the short range is a major problem. In the couple of times I've played Yukikaze, there have definitely been times where I just didn't have the range I wanted. Kagero and Harekaze also have the option to mount TRB. True, they have to give up smoke, but a good Kagero/Harekaze player can work with that. Yukikaze has no options to launch a wall of torps. Harekaze is probably not a good comparison, since although it's a Kagero class, it serves a different purpose. Though Harekaze has worse torps than Kagero and Yukikaze, she has far better guns.

Indeed this is problem for all DDs and especially for shorter range 8km torps. That being said as long as there are caps that give points you can always push for caps and force enemy team to push when they are down on points. Still it is a good point that I hope to talk about in part 2, high tier matches on bigger maps.

I wonder, will WeeGee ever give us an IJN DD Premium that isn't gimmicked to horse feces but is just a regular, classic IJN DD that'll be good for training generic IJN DD Captains? Like, just give me Ayanami in T8 with Yuugumo's 12km torps for Shimakaze style gameplay or Tokitsukaze with 12km torps and TRB?

I wonder, will WeeGee ever give us an IJN DD Premium that isn't gimmicked to horse feces but is just a regular, classic IJN DD that'll be good for training generic IJN DD Captains? Like, just give me Ayanami in T8 with Yuugumo's 12km torps for Shimakaze style gameplay or Tokitsukaze with 12km torps and TRB?

Are these requests THAT hard to fulfill?

~Hunter

You do realise right that TRB is itself a gimmick? Asking for a 'regular, classic' IJN DD premium and mentioning TRB as an option is self contradictory.

And those ships already exist: Kamikaze, Shinonome, and Yukikaze. They are all no frills destroyers that can train all torpedo boat IJN DD captains with no issue, and have no magic skills. Heck, even Harekaze and Asashio can train captains too with minimum fuss. Yuudachi will be able to do it as well.

If anything, Kagero is more gimmicky than Yukikaze because of TRB. Yukikaze is actually more 'classic', since there was a time when IJN DDs didn't have TRB.

I wonder, will WeeGee ever give us an IJN DD Premium that isn't gimmicked to horse feces but is just a regular, classic IJN DD that'll be good for training generic IJN DD Captains? Like, just give me Ayanami in T8 with Yuugumo's 12km torps for Shimakaze style gameplay or Tokitsukaze with 12km torps and TRB?

If you are want a mid tier IJN wait for the Yudachi, i seen it in game testing so probably coming out soon.

If you want a good IJN tier 8 i would say assashio.

The Yuki is problematic because the current meta and mm where you will be facing alot of carrier planes, radar, and hydro as well as other destroyers in tier 8,9 and 10 matches. So with short range torps being handicapped 2km and forcing you to get closer to shoot your torps and have a chance to hit, it puts you in very risky situations.

The logic of WG cutting the torpedo range down 2km to 8km range is boggling.

As well it does not have the torpedo reload booster.

And its not like they gave it a quick torpedo reload to compensate for this.

So factor in its an IJN ship, which means its not particularly fast, the AA is horrid, the reload on guns is not fast so you cant out dpm other gun boat dd, and considering its a torp boat but with less range on its torps. It takes it out of the role of what an IJN destroyer is, which is a torpedo boat.

So it goes into that no mans land category where the reload on guns is not fast enough to make it a gun boat and you cant out dpm or compete with other dd gun boats in a knife fight.

And its not a torpedo boat because the torpedo range is inadequately short with mm where you will be fighting other tier 8,9 and 10 ships most of time at 8m range.

For the average player what this means is they made it a camping destroyer where it hides out till most of the radar ships and other dd are gone before it can move in and try to get damage mid game.

In essence a destroyer that will have to have passive play for first half of game.

If you are want a mid tier IJN wait for the Yudachi, i seen it in game testing so probably coming out soon.

Yes the Yudachi is down in tier VII which I much prefer over VIII. I keep getting the two confused. I think it has only two bad 40mm AA guns and torpedoes that have 2.5 km detection range.

And the Yahagi would be good to have too. But six slow firing 6" guns and terrible torpedo firing arcs. Are not promising.

But both, last I saw, are not ready for prime time. Unless WG is so afraid of putting out an OP Premium ship they are going to nerf them to death. Maybe I can train my captains to just hide, do they earn XP for that?

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Between the three premium IJN Tiet VIII DDs, I feel the Yukikaze is the most generalist ship. That being said, it lives or dies by the success of its torpedo strikes. The guns are handy for starting fires and firing from cover, but you're not going to win gum battles with most same tier DDs. In fact, I think the Asashio and Harekaze would out gun the Yukikaze in a head to head battle much more often than not.

Compare it to the Asashio and Harekaze and:

1. It has good torps with a reasonable reload. They are fast, low detection, and hit very hard. It can be challenging to get into position to use them given their range, but when you let them go, they get to the target in a hurry. The real challenge is that radar out ranges your torps by a fair margine.

2. It is reasonably responsive to rudder commands. The turn radius might not be small, but it responds to direction changes quickly.

3. It is stealthy, matching the Asashio at 5.4km.

4. It has poor AA. This might be THE defining characteristic of the stealth IJN DD in the poat 0.8 world.

5. The guns are almost spray and pray. This was the most surprising thing for me about this ship. The shell dispersion is very sloppy by IJN standards. The Asashio amd Harekaze fire very tight groups like their big sister IJN cruisers, while the Yukikaze almost feels German when you watch your shells going higgily piggly.

I enjoy the ship and I am glad I have it. A shame it will mostly stay in port given the current realities of Tier VIII shiplife.

Personally, I think Harekaze still takes the cake as the best Premium Tier VIII IJN DD. I never played Asashio, but she seems too specialized, and Yuki has an issue of torp range. Harekaze has none of those issues, plus she can dodge the IJN DD gun issue by taking her B-hull with the 100mm IJN guns, which makes her a formidable gunbote, ever since the penetration buff on those guns.

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Aside from the AL association, there isn't much appeal for Yukikaze. Yugumo has the same F3 torps, access to slot 6 mod for -15% reload time, can mount TRB, can have much better guns and cost zero dollars.

Ok sure, they're not the same tier, but T9 gets +1/-2 tier spread, while T8 gets +2/-2 spread. They both face T10s regularly, but Yugumo can fare much better.